MONTREAL — Jacques Lemaire suggested today that Devils rookie winger Mattias Tedenby has the potential to become another Brian Gionta.

Asked if Tedenby reminds him of an NHL player, Lemaire said: "Gionta maybe with the puck. Maybe he doesn't shoot as well as Gionta. But control, quickness and making plays, toughness. For his size he plays an aggressive game. He goes in traffic."

I asked Martin Brodeur if he sees Tedenby becoming another Gionta.

"As a captain?" Brodeur responded jokingly.

"He's a tremendous hockey player. He's got a lot of skills but he has a lot of things to learn in the game with his background and his age, living in Sweden and all that.

"But Gio (is) a pretty good hockey player. His competitive level is pretty high. That's why he became so good. Like all smaller sized players — Theo Fleury — you have to have that competitiveness. Teddy has that. He just has to put it together. That's experience."

Lemaire said Tedenby has to improve his defensive play, just as Ilya Kovalchuk had to get better in that area.

"All his game is offense, offense. He's going to be in good position defensively for two or three shifts. All of a sudden he's not there," Lemaire said. "That's the way it is."

Asked of there is a place in the current NHL for players who don't play good defense but are exceptional offensive talents, Lemaire said: "I think there is, but you can't play them in certain situations. You can't play them against the top line on the other side. You can't play them against the top players."

The Montreal media, of course, was fascinated by the return of Lemaire as Deviils coach.

Interestingly, Mario Tremblay interviewed his close friend and longtime coaching partner before today's 3 p.m. meeting with the Canadiens at the Bell Centre. Tremblay now works in TV and radio in Montreal.

"I asked him all the tough questions," Tremblay joked. "He was good. Short questions. Long answers."

Brodeur was asked about Lemaire's return.

"It's been good. It's been really interesting for us to go from where we were to what we are now as a team," the goalie said. "We put the hours in to be a better team.

"An hour, hour and fifteen, hour and 20 minute practices sometimes. You don't see that in the middle of the season but we needed it. We were not a really good hockey team. A lot of mistakes. We cleaned up our game a lot since then and the results have shown up."

It did not happen overnight with Lemaire, Brodeur pointed out.

"We took a really big step back," he said. "It didn't happen overnight. It took 7-8 games before we started to play the way we should."

But can they get back into the playoff race?

"You know what? It's going to be about other teams. Not us," Brodeur predicted. "We have to do our share but other teams have to help us out a little bit if we want to be in the race. We can only control what we do. That's what we're facing right now. Every game for us is a big game.

"We always kid about this. 'This is one of our biggest games.' We have to live like that every day, because it's too far out. Later on, if teams slide down and we're there, we'll definitely give it a shot. Now it's about playing well, going forward and getting points."

Of the first half of the season, Brodeur said: "It was 41 games in hell for us. That's the bottom line."

Brodeur has one season remaining on his contract. He knows this could be one of his last visits to Montreal as a player.

"Well, I know I'm going to come back here next year," he said with a chuckle. "But I start thinking about these things more and more, especially in great places that I like to play. There aren't many more (visits). You have to cherish them as much as you can."

He spoke of facing the Habs.

"I think we know how fast a team they are. It's going to be a good challenge for us," he said. "We have to make our chances count. It will interesting. I think we came off a tough loss to Florida, so it will be a big game for us. It should be easy to get back into the game with the excitement level and bounce back."